Combination insulation system

ABSTRACT

A thermally insulating packaging system including insulated walls surrounding an internal cavity. At least one of the faces of the packaging system is insulated with a first type of thermal insulating material and the remaining faces of the packaging system are insulated with a second type of insulating material. The first insulation material is a Vacuum Insulation Panel (VIP). The VIP is fitted to a frame, which is formed by a single piece of the second insulation material. The second insulating material is a shaped insulating foam. The frame provides a support for the VIP via a contact surface. The VIP is held in contact with the frame. Here, the frame can be shaped and sized so as to provide a positive holding force. Additionally or alternatively, an outer cover can be used such as a rigid external fitting, flexible cover, shrinkable or elastic cover or other means.

This invention relates to an insulated packaging system.

Expanded or extruded polymer foam materials are often used to provide insulation in temperature controlled packing systems. These materials can be extruded, injection moulded or processed by other means to create complex 3D shapes. The insulation provided by these materials is directly proportional to the thickness provided. However, the thermal insulation properties of these materials are limited, meaning that to achieve greater temperature differentials a very thick packaging is required, which can be costly and can make the packages excessively large for the insulated volume within.

It is an object of the present invention to address at least one of the above or other disadvantages. It is a further aim to provide a packaging system that has a reduced external volume whilst providing a given thermal insulation level.

According to the present invention there is provided a thermally insulating packaging system and method of forming the same as set forth in the appended claims. Other features of the invention will be apparent from the dependent claims, and the description which follows.

According to an exemplary embodiment there is provided a thermally insulating packaging system comprising insulated walls surrounding an internal cavity, wherein at least one of the faces of the packaging system is insulated with a first type of thermal insulating material and the remaining faces of the packaging system are insulated with a second type of insulating material.

In the exemplary embodiments, the first insulation material is a vacuum insulation material. Here, the vacuum insulation material may form a Vacuum Insulation Panel (VIP) having a substantially constant thickness. The VIP is fitted to a body or frame, which in the exemplary embodiments is formed by a single piece of the second insulation material. Here, the second insulating material is a shaped insulating foam such as an expanded or extruded polymer foam material or the like that can be formed or machined into a complex shape having varying wall thickness. The frame provides a support for the VIP. The support provides a contact surface for the VIP. In the exemplary embodiments, the contact surface provides a continuous, looped contact area to the VIP. For instance, the contact surface can be a ledge or the like that contacts a periphery of the VIP. The VIP is held in contact with the frame. Here, the frame can be shaped and sized so as to provide a positive holding force. Additionally or alternatively, an outer cover can be used such as a rigid external fitting, flexible cover, shrinkable or elastic cover or other means.

In a particular exemplary embodiment, the first insulating material may at least cover substantially a first major face and preferably covers at least two major faces. Here, the two major faces may be opposite faces. For instance, in an example of a cuboid packaging system the first insulation material is used for the opposite, preferably upper and lower, rectangular faces thereof.

In the exemplary embodiments, the first insulation material may be a vacuum insulation material, for example it may be a low density insulation material, which is preferably being encapsulated within a gas barrier, with the atmosphere in the gas barrier preferably being removed to form an evacuated insulation panel. The material used for the vacuum insulated material may be fumed silica or may be aero-gel. Here, the first and second major faces are insulated with first and second panels.

In a particular exemplary embodiment, the remaining, or side faces other than the faces insulated by the first material are insulated with a single piece of material, which may form a body section, which is preferably ring-shaped, or toroidal, preferably having openings therein to receive the first type of thermal insulating material. Here, the opening is an opening to the cavity. The remaining faces of the packaging system are insulated using the second material, which may be an expanded polymer foam or may be an extruded polymer foam material.

In the exemplary embodiments, the body section defines side walls of an internal cavity adapted to receive an item to be packaged.

In a particular exemplary embodiment, the body section comprises an upper peripheral lip, and preferably also comprises a lower peripheral lip. The peripheral lips preferably enclose a respective upper or lower panel. Here, the body section preferably incorporates an upper shoulder section, preferably located within the upper peripheral lip. The body section preferably incorporates a lower shoulder section, preferably located within the lower peripheral lip. The or each shoulder section is preferably adapted to receive a major face of a respective first or second panel.

A major face in the context used herein is a face having a larger area than other faces, for example a thin panel shape has two faces of substantially greater area than faces forming edges of the panel.

For a better understanding of the invention, and to show how embodiments of the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic exploded perspective view of a thermal packaging system.

A thermal packaging system 10 comprises an outer shell 12, upper and lower vacuum insulation panels 14 and 16 respectively and a single body piece for the side walls 18.

In more detail, the side walls 18 are formed as body section in a ring or toroid shape, i.e. a box without a lid or base. The material used may be expanded polystyrene foam, extruded polystyrene foam, expanded polyethylene foam, polyphenolic foam, polyurethane foam or other high insulation rigid or semi-rigid insulation material capable of being formed into a complex 3D shape. This material has the advantage of being shapeable to a desired shape for use with a particular thermally insulating packaging.

The minor faces of the packaging system are formed by the side walls 18. An internal cavity 20 has a shape defined by the side walls 18. The benefit of being able to form the side walls in the chosen material allows for the shape of the internal cavity 20 to be formed very accurately.

As mentioned above, the insulation properties of the expanded or extruded polymer foam materials used is directly proportional to the thickness of the side walls 18.

The upper and lower major face panels 14 and 16 are formed using vacuum insulation materials, the shape of which is typically limited to simple panel shapes, because of the difficulty of forming and evacuating the vacuum insulation materials. Thus these pieces are typically rectangular in plan. The insulation provided by the vacuum insulation materials panels 14 and 16 is typically a function of the ratio of panel edge to panel major face and the quality of the vacuum maintained within the panel 14/16.

As can be seen in FIG. 1 the structure of the single piece body 18 provides a contact surface being a thin rim wall 22, to retain outer edges of the upper/lower panel 14/16 and a thicker ledge wall 24, which provides a lip onto which the upper panel 14 can be placed. Similarly, although not shown, there is a ledge 24 and rim 22 into which the lower panel 16 can fit in the same way.

The ledge 24 provides the upper and lower panels 14/16 an interface surface to provide a continuous ring of contact between a major face of each of the vacuum insulation panels 14/16 and the expanded/extruded polymer foam material of the body piece 18. Therefore, this arrangement forms a contact surface which includes all of the edge areas of the major face of the vacuum insulation panels 14/16.

When the lower panel 16 has been fitted within the rim wall 22 at the lower end of the side wall structure 18 and contacts the ledge 24 and likewise the upper panel 14 has been placed in position the structure can be placed within the external shell 12, the cavity is well insulated and the good interfaces between the body piece 18 and the upper and lower panels 14/16 prevents thermal leakage between the sections. Any contents within the cavity 20 are therefore thermally insulated for shipping.

An alternative to the external shell 12 would be to us a partial or complete enclosure in a flexible external fitting, or a feature of the shaped insulating foam part 18 which could be used to retain the upper and lower panels 14/16 respectively, or by the use of a shrinkable or elastic part end enclosure, for example a shrink wrap around the upper and lower panels 14/16 and the side wall structure 18.

A significant advantage from the thermally insulating package described above is that the volume of the package for a given level of thermal insulation is reduced. The reason for this is that the vacuum insulation panels 14/16 have an improved thermally insulating characteristic compared to the side wall structure 18. Thus, the overall volume of the temperature control package is reduced, because of the greater efficiency of the vacuum insulated panels. Given that shipping costs relate to the overall volume of package, it is an significant advantage that the overall volume is reduced. However, the benefit of being able to shape the side wall structure to provided a shaped package, as required for a particular item to be placed within the package has been retained. Furthermore, it will be noticed that the use of upper and lower panels 14/16 with the vacuum insulation material results in significantly shortening of one access of the overall package, which significantly reduces the shipping costs in line with the reasoning above.

Although preferred embodiment(s) of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims. 

1. A thermally insulating packaging system comprising insulated walls surrounding an internal cavity, wherein the insulated walls have a face and at least one of the faces is insulated with a first type of thermal insulating material and the remaining faces of the packaging system are insulated with a second type of insulating material.
 2. The thermally insulating packaging system of claim 1, wherein the first insulation material is a vacuum insulation material and the second insulating material is a shaped insulating foam.
 3. The thermally insulating packaging system of claim 2, wherein the vacuum insulation material forms a Vacuum Insulation Panel having a substantially constant thickness.
 4. The thermally insulating packaging system of claim 2, wherein the shaped insulating foam is formed or machined into a complex shape having varying wall thickness.
 5. The thermally insulating packaging system of claim 2, wherein the shaped insulating foam forms a single-piece body that supports the first insulation material.
 6. The thermally insulating packaging system of claim 5, wherein the body provides a contact surface for the first insulation material.
 7. The thermally insulating packaging system of claim 6, wherein the body comprises a peripheral lip formed by a shoulder section that is adapted to receive the first insulating material.
 8. The thermally insulating packaging system of claim 1, wherein the first insulating material at least covers substantially a first major face and the remaining faces other than the faces insulated by the first material are insulated with a single piece of second insulating material.
 9. The thermally insulating packaging system of claim 8, wherein at least two major faces are covered substantially by the first insulating material.
 10. The thermally insulating packaging system of claim 1, including retaining means to apply a compressive force between the first insulating material and the second insulating material.
 11. The thermally insulating packaging system of claim 10, wherein the retaining means comprises an outer shell.
 12. A method of forming a thermally insulating packaging system, the method comprising assembling a first insulating material to a second insulating material in order to form an internal cavity surrounded by insulated walls, wherein the insulated walls have a face and at least one of the faces is insulated with the first type of thermal insulating material and the remaining faces of the packaging system are insulated with the second type of insulating material.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein assembling the first insulating material to the second insulating material comprises locating a Vacuum Insulation Panel having a substantially constant thickness formed of the first insulating material on to a shoulder of a single-piece body of shaped insulating foam formed from the second insulating material.
 14. The method of claim 12, including assembling an outer shell around the first insulating material and the second insulating material in order to apply a compressive force between the first insulating material and the second insulating material. 